In the News

OAKVILLE, ON (November 28, 2017) – Vicwest Inc. (the “Company” or “Vicwest”) announced they have secured the Site Plan approval with the town of Stratford, to expand their current manufacturing facilities, expected for completion the second quarter of 2018.

“With the expansion of the Stratford manufacturing location, this allows Vicwest to amalgamate their Ontario based operations into one centralized location,” said Bernard Lewis, Senior Vice President of Operations at Vicwest. “Currently, the industrial mills have been operating from our Oakville, Ontario location. This buildout will allow for the Oakville mills to be moved to the expanded Stratford facility. The Oakville offices will be moving to a new facility in Burlington at the beginning of Q2 2018.”

The move of the equipment from the Oakville facility to the expanded Stratford location is a strategic one, positioning Vicwest to continue to further bring quality and innovative products to our customers. Streamlining the manufacturing to one central location will provide the opportunity for our products to ship from one centralized location, versus a second pick up.

The “Stratford Centre of Excellence” expansion is designed for maximum efficiency and output and will boast the following:

• Optimized floor space achieved through lean manufacturing principles;
• Increased mill operations speed as a result of VF drives and Servo controls;
• Lean principles applied to material flow from loading to shipping, enhancing overall efficiencies by reducing time and costs;
• Automated stackers at the end of mills; and
• Future automated wrapping of materials.

Vicwest Inc. is a leading manufacturer and distributor of building construction products for agriculture, commercial, industrial and residential markets. With approximately 3,000 customers and 500 dedicated employees, we are positioned for growth in domestic and North American markets. Vicwest Inc. is a division of the Kingspan Group of Companies doing business as Vicwest Building Products.

April 11, 2017. As a leading steel manufacturer in Canada, Vicwest Building Products, a division of The Kingspan Group of Companies, has successfully completed Renewable Energy Certificate through American Wind and reduced Electricity usage through LED and Power Factor correction.

As released earlier, Kingspan, the global leader in high performance insulation and building envelope solutions, announced it has surpassed its target of generating at least half its aggregate energy use from renewable resources by 2016. Kingspan’s aggregate renewable energy use was 57% of its total energy use in 2016, meaning the company is firmly on track to hit its goal, set in 2011, of operating at Net Zero Energy (NZE) by 2020.
Globally, Kingspan Group has taken a three pronged approach to reducing its energy foot print:

• Save more energy: Energy efficiency measures introduced by Kingspan have reduced the company’s overall lighting and heat costs by over 30% and achieved almost a four-fold decrease in carbon intensity levels.
• Generate more renewable energy: Kingspan’s on-site renewable energy generation has jumped from 6.6 GWh in 2012 to 32.2 GWh in 2016 through the use of solar, wind and biomass technologies. On- site generation across multiple sites globally currently supplies 7.6% of the company’s total energy use, and more projects are now under construction. For example, in 2015 Ireland’s largest solar PV roof panel installation was made at its Portadown facility, which generates 30% of the plant’s energy needs.
• Buy more renewable energy: Kingspan has taken steps to ensure that where renewable energy can’t be produced on-site, it is procured from fully-certified sources. In 2016 all the electricity used at manufacturing sites in North America was procured from certified renewable sources. Globally in 2016, the Group used 164.2 GWh of renewable electricity, almost a six- fold increase from 2011 (and equivalent to not burning 55m tonnes of coal).

The building sector contributes 30% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 40% of global energy consumption. Unless more action is taken by Governments and corporates, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) predicts that greenhouse gas emissions are set to double over the next 20 years.

“At Vicwest we have taken particular pride in applying Renewable Energy for Electricity in 2016 and committed to Green Natural Gas for 2017 onwards. Our go forward position is to decrease usage of Renewable Electricity and Green Natural Gas through LED/daylight and infrared systems,” said Paul Lobb, President of Vicwest Building Products. “We are committed to delivering on The Kingspan Group’s key business objective of reducing their carbon footprint.”

Kingspan CEO, Gene Murtagh, said:
“We are very pleased to have exceeded our targets on our path to operating as a Net Zero Energy company by 2020, hitting 57% renewable energy in 2016. In the five years since launching this initiative we have seen multiple benefits including reductions in costs, less reliance on fossil fuels and demonstrating the business case for our systems and solutions. Without more action from the corporate sector, greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise and the impact of global warming will become a bigger threat for future generations.”

Kingspan has been able to achieve its goals, reducing its impact of the environments, while growing its business at a record pace through acquisitions and strong organic growth. Kingspan now has over 10,000 employees and more than 90 manufacturing plants operating across the world. Vicwest Building Products employs 461 staff across 9 manufacturing and distribution facilities in Canada.

Kingspan’s environmental achievements have been recognised through its A List ranking on the CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index, for the second year running. It is the only Irish-listed company recognised on this index compiled at the request of 827 investors who represent $100 trillion of assets under management. Kingspan is also a member of the RE100, a group of some of the world’s best known companies committed to using 100% renewable power.

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We use cookies to provide a personalized experience for our users, measure visitor traffic and evaluate it for marketing purposes. If you continue without changing your cookie settings, we will assume you are happy to receive all cookies on the Vicwest Building Products website. However, if you would like, you can change your cookie settings at any time. Thank you for visiting Vicwest.